In these times of fifty shades of media saturation, credit is due to the author whose name inspired the term masochism, Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch. His name and proclivities were used as examples in the early psychiatric community, but his …
Archive for the ‘Writing & Poetry’ Category
Do You Want a Taste of the Whip?
Mar
10
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Welcome to The Jungle
Feb
24
Not every novel leads to legislation. Upton Sinclair took an undercover job in the Chicago Stockyards to research his expose of the meatpacking industry, The Jungle. The first installment was published in the newspaper Appeal to Reason on February …
Steampunk Manifested
Feb
17
A spectre is haunting steampunk—the spectre of Marxism! On February 21, 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto. By no means is steampunk a Marxist movement, but as this treatise influenced revolutions and built nations, its …
Janet Berres: Mistress of the Tarot
Feb
10
Professional tarot reader Janet Berres can often be found at the gatherings of the steampunk mystics The Owen Society for Hermetic & Spiritual Enlightenment. She opened her home to their Yule gathering this past December, where she keeps her …
News from Nowhere
Jan
06
The first installment of William Morris’ Victorian scientific romance News from Nowhere was published in Commonweal on January 11, 1890. Like Rip Van Winkle or Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, the narrator William Guest slept …
Roi Rage
Dec
09
On December 10, 1896, Parisian theatergoers attended the premiere of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi(King Ubu). An obese grotesque carried a toilet brush as a scepter. He greeted them with the first word of the play, “Shit!” The audience erupted …
Waistcoats and Weaponry Book Release Parties
Nov
11
Bestselling steampunk author Gail Carriger will be providing two opportunities to visit her in Chicago area libraries. They are launches for Waistcoats & Weaponry, the third book in her Finishing School series.
Finishing School is set in the …
Dr. Mütter’s Marvels
Sep
30
A wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosities, collects all sorts of unusual items. They may be objects d’art, memories or relics. These private collections of contemplation serve as the precursors for museums and freak shows. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia …
Alice: Born on the 4th of July
Jul
01
Instead of lighting fireworks this 4th of July, why not follow the rabbit hole down Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? On July 4, 1862, Lewis Carroll first told the tale.
Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge …
Yes I Said Yes I Will Yes Celebrate Bloomsday
Jun
10
Bloomsday celebrates June 16, 1904: the day captured in James Joyce’s Ulysses. The Modernist novel recounts Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey as a day in the life of Dublin advertising agent Leopold Bloom.
Ulysses broke ground with its stream …
